This Protector — The White Stripes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv_eIFpFMiA

Branching out is always a good idea; almost always rewarding, generally successful, and often phenomenal. One-hit wonders are bands that experiment in just the right way, but can't do it again. Phenomenal musicians are constantly experimenting, good musicians experimented enough to hit a stride. It's a process where you're constantly changing, but you don't always have to be changing the way in which you're changing. This is the Calc II in me speaking.

This Protector is not a typical White Stripes song, I think. They're dirty south, New Orleans soul with distortion, beat poetry as heavy garage rock. But here, they branch out. It's like folk song in its simplicity, nearly a chant in its repetition, and a sermon in its content. I don't know what to make of it, and maybe they didn't either.

I've listened to it more times than all other White Stripes songs combined. Something tickled.